


Heterodynes Do As They Please; Or, Rude Hand Gestures at the Space-Time Continuum

by Purrs



Series: Heterodynes Do As They Please [1]
Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 00:47:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16230743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purrs/pseuds/Purrs
Summary: In which a relative pays a visit.





	Heterodynes Do As They Please; Or, Rude Hand Gestures at the Space-Time Continuum

“Fools! In a moment your pitiful lives will be ended!” gloats Kritislik Wissenschaft, Baron of Scrifler. “For you see, this device here was constructed by Van Rijn himself, and once I flip this switch, _you all will pay!_ ”

Barry rolls his eyes. “How many times have we heard that in the past week?” he murmurs.

Bill flashes a grin; he’s already cut through his own bonds and is halfway through Barry’s. “Though I must say the Van Rijn part is new.”

“Silence!” Wissenschaft roars, and flips the switch.

Lightning flashes. Thunder crashes. The room goes dark for a moment, and when the lights turn back on, there’s a woman in red and gold in a three-point stance between Wissenschaft and the machine. Her head whips from side to side to take in the room, long black hair whirling behind her.

Wissenschaft looks between the woman and the switch he’s still holding onto, clearly disappointed the effect wasn’t more immediately destructive. Collecting his wits, he points at Bill and Barry. “Attack them!” he cries.

Barry snaps the remaining cords around his wrists and Bill ends his pretense of still having any; the two sink into fighting stances.

The woman, on the other hand, straightens with a disdainful curl to her lip. “You _dare_ ,” she says, and Barry starts at the somehow-different-but-recognizably-Mechanicsburg accent saturating her words, “give orders to _me?_ ”

“I _do_ dare!” Well, Barry has to give him credit for trying.

The woman snarls and lunges for Wissenschaft, seizing him by the neck. She snatches a sharp-edged tool from a workbench and slashes it across his throat. Wissenschaft lets out a wet gurgle as she lets him fall to the floor. She then turns on Bill and Barry, her improvised blade raised. “Well?” she demands.

The pieces have just finished falling into place for Barry, and the golden trilobite on her headpiece only confirms it. “Great-great-great-great-great-aunt Euphrosynia?”

Her eyes flicker to the trilobites on their own clothing. “Say that again,” she says.

“I’m Bill Heterodyne,” Bill says, “and this is my brother Barry. It’s eighteen sixty-three.”

Euphrosynia examines Bill’s features, then Barry’s, then nods to herself, having apparently found what she was looking for. “Eighteen sixty-three, you say?” She grins. “Why don’t you show me what’s changed, children?”


End file.
